Articles

The question "Why?" is a frequent guest in the thought of mankind. We are not content merely to examine effects: we want to know something about cause.

Friendship is so attractive in its offer of happy companionship to individuals of like tastes, pursuits, and aspirations that there can be few indeed who have not at some time awakened and responded to its warm appeal. A dictionary defines "friend" as "one who entertains for another such sentiments as esteem, respect, and affection, that he seeks his society and welfare.

We are told in Matthew that when he came "down from the mountain," where he had delivered his great Sermon, Christ Jesus was approached by a leper who bowed himself in humility and said, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. " Jesus, his heart filled with divine love, was moved with divine love, was moved with compassion, and reaching forth his hand, touched the leper and said, "I will; be thou clean;" and immediately the leprosy departed.

Outpost duty is of great importance. Not only allegiance, but caution, loyalty, and watchfulness are needed to make instant discovery of any hostile activity, and thus to avoid danger.

In an address, in 1893, Mary Baker Eddy made the following statement (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 116 ): "The ultimate of scientific research and attainment in divine Science is not an argument: it is not merely saying, but doing, the Word—demonstrating Truth—even as the fruits of watchfulness, prayer, struggles, tears, and triumph.

In fall of 1621, a group of surviving Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. Despite many months of untold hardships, sufferings, and losses in the new world to which they had migrated seeking freedom from religious persecution, those brave and sturdy pioneers paused to thank God for His bounty and goodness.

A Philosopher of ancient times named Thales, a man of no mean reputation, once declared, "For a man to know himself is the hardest task he can master. " Considering man from the ordinary philosophical and theological viewpoints, that is undoubtedly true, for the hypothetical nature of these viewpoints hinders spiritual selfknowledge.

In the year 1866 there came to Mary Baker Eddy the revelation that Christ Jesus' gospel of the kingdom of heaven was the good news of the heavenly Father's ability to heal and save mankind not only in Jesus' time but for all time. That for which he gave his earthly all had for centuries become to an extent abrogated.

A glorious opportunity for individual spiritual growth lies in the experience of every member of a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, if he is daily availing himself of the privileges which membership in the Christian Science organization affords. No one thing, in the life of a member of a Christian Science church, is fraught with greater possibilities for individual spiritual attainment than is the experience of those who conscientiously, faithfully, and fearlessly meet and fulfill the obligations which devolve upon them as church members.

The longing for liberty inherent in the hearts of men is the natural revolt against oppression, since man's real state is one of freedom. This longing is the expression of mankind's insistent urge toward a knowledge of real, spiritual existence.